Plus ca change, plus le meme chose.
This debate has been going on since the early-60's and the Roskill Commission. Maplin Sands was suggested then as a site for a new London Airport, along with Stansted, Thurleigh,and another site north of London in Bedfordshire, whose name escapes me (possibly Little Staughton?). Politicians were too wet to make a decision then, and we're now paying the price instead of reaping the economic rewards of a bold investment choice. An assortment of tree-huggers, twitchers, frog fans and tadpole lovers (not to mention nimby stockbrokers and retired Colonels) effectively obstructed the project
Anyone
really think we'll get such a decision now?
Meanwhile, our civil aviation industry gets battered by taxes and over-stretched facilities ( ATC - my hat off to you guys, definitely the worlds best), while AMS,CDG, and,yes, DXB,AUH and DOH benefit from our lack of foresight and action. I'll wager that the debate is still raging in ten years time, shortly after T6 is finished at LHR
.